| By: |
Martin Binder (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany);
Andreas Freytag (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: |
Is the activity of volunteering something that benefits the volunteer as well
as the recipient of the volunteer's activities? We analyze this relationship
and apply matching estimators to the large-scale British Household Panel
Survey (BHPS) data set to estimate the causal impact of volunteering on
happiness. We take into account personality traits that could jointly
determine volunteering behaviour and happiness. We find that the causal impact
of volunteering on happiness is positive and increasing over time if
volunteering is sustained. In a quantile analysis, we find that this effect
seems to be driven by reducing the unhappiness of the less happy quantiles of
the well-being distribution. We test the robustness of our findings and
discuss their relevance for public policy. |
| Keywords: |
volunteering, happiness, altruism, generosity, public policy, BHPS |
| JEL: |
D6 D64 Z1 |
| Date: |
2012–03–30 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2012-013&r=hap |